Social Liberal Party (Brazil)

This article is about the conservative and nationalist party. For Brazilian liberal parties, see Liberalism in Brazil.

Social Liberal Party Partido Social Liberal
File:Partido Social Liberal logo.svg
Leader	Jair Bolsonaro
Founder	Luciano Bivar
President	Gustavo Bebbiano (acting)
Founded	30 October 1994 (1994-10-30) (founded) 2 June 1998 (1998-06-02) (registered)
Headquarters	SHN, Quadra 02, Bloco F, Ed. Executive Office Tower, Sala 1.122 – Brasília (DF)
Membership  (July 2018)	241,439
Ideology	Currently: Brazilian nationalism Social conservatism National conservatism Economic liberalism Right-wing populism Anti-communism Minority: Monarchism Formerly: Social liberalism Classical liberalism
Political position	Currently: Right-wing to far-right Formerly: Centre to centre-right
National affiliation	Brazil Above Everything, God Above Everyone
Colours	Blue      Green      Yellow (national colours)      Purple      White (formerly)
TSE Identification Number	17
Seats in the Chamber of Deputies (2018)	52 / 513
Seats in the Senate (2018)	4 / 81
Governors (2018)	1 / 27
State deputies (2018)	76 / 1,035
City councillors (2016)	878 / 57,720
Website
pslnacional.org.br
Politics of Brazil Political parties Elections

The Social Liberal Party (Portuguese: Partido Social Liberal, PSL) is a Brazilian national-conservative political party in Brazil.

Founded in 1994 as a social liberal party, the PSL was registered on the Superior Electoral Court in 1998.

In January 2018, conservative politician Jair Bolsonaro joined the party and later converted the party into the national-conservative party while the original name it's intact for time being after Livres (the party's original main wing) left the party and formed their own political movement to continue the party's original goals. He became its nominee for the 2018 presidential election and won in both rounds.

History

The PSL was originally founded on 30 October 1994 by businessman Luciano Bivar as a social liberal party. The party was registered on the Superior Electoral Court on 2 June 1998.

At the legislative elections on 6 October 2002, the PSL won 1 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and no seats in the Federal Senate. In 2006, the party won no seats in the Chamber of Deputies or the Federal Senate. In 2010 and 2014, the PSL won 1 seat in the Chamber of Deputies and no seats in the Federal Senate.

In 2015, the PSL underwent a reform led by the internal social liberal wing Livres, with names such as political scientist Fábio Ostermann and journalist Leandro Narloch reinforcing the party's affiliation with social liberal policies. On 5 January 2018, right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro became a member of the party, which prompted the Livres wing to leave the party in protest of Bolsonaro's social conservative views. After the exit of Livres, the party followed a national-conservative path. Since then, the party has discussed a name change either to Republicans (Republicanos) or Mobilize (Mobiliza). The party also changed its colors from purple to the more nationalist blue, yellow and green, the colors of the flag of Brazil. The PSL supported the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.

Bolsonaro eventually became the PSL nominee for the 2018 presidential election. In the first round of the election, Bolsonaro exceeded polling forecasts to receive 46% of the popular vote. Bolsonaro's coattails helped elect 52 deputies and 4 senators from the PSL, which will make it the second largest political party in the next Chamber of Deputies. It also became the largest single party in the legislative assemblies of both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Organization

Ideology and policies

Since Bolsonaro's entrance in the party, the PSL has changed much of its ideologies, abandoning its former socially liberal policies and keeping its economic liberal policies, supporting privatisation and decentralisation while at the same time adopting socially conservative policies regarding abortion, legalization of marijuana and the teaching of gender identity in schools.

The PSL is anti-communist and its members are prohibited from making alliances with left-wing political parties.

Electoral results

Presidential elections

Year	Candidate	First round		Second round
		No. of overall votes	% of overal votes	No. of overall votes	% of overal votes
2006	Luciano Bivar	62.064	0.06 (7th)	N/A	N/A
2014	None, it endorsed Marina Silva	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2018	Jair Bolsonaro	49,276,990	46.0 (1st)	53,967,344	55.6

Legislative elections

Election	Chamber of Deputies				Federal Senate				Role
	% of votes	No. of votes	No. of seats	+/–	% of votes	No. of votes	No. of seats	+/–
2002	0.5	408,512	1 / 513	1	0	N/A	0 / 81	0	In opposition
2006	0.2	190,793	0 / 513	1	0.0	46,542	0 / 81	0	In opposition
2010	0.5	499,963	1 / 513	1	0.3	446,517	0 / 81	0	In opposition
2014	0.83	808,710	1 / 513	0	0	N/A	0 / 81	0	In opposition
2018	11.7	11,457,878	52 / 513	44	11.3	19,413,869	4 / 81	4	TBD

See also

• Jair Bolsonaro
• Patriota

References

Preceded by 16 - USWP (PSTU)

Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties 17 - SLP (PSL)

Succeeded by 18 - NETWORK (REDE)